Supreme Court declines to interfere in HC order on TMC bank accounts

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to interfere with the July 20 Calcutta High Court (HC) order refusing to grant interim permission to the Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to operate three bank accounts earlier frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

A bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale noted that the HC had on July 9 allowed partial operation of the accounts to meet day-to-day expenses and said it is “satisfied that the HC… has passed a balanced order”. Disposing of appeals by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Biswanath Das, a rebel TMC leader, Justice Sundresh said, “The interim order takes care of it. Only other issue is whether something more needs to be done… For day-to-day administration funds are there… We will not say anything. We will dispose of both the matters and leave it to the discretion of the Special Officer appointed by the HC”.

The ED had frozen the accounts carrying Rs 400 crore in connection with a money laundering probe stemming from a West Bengal Police FIR. On July 9, the HC had appointed former Calcutta HC judge, Justice Subrata Talukdar, as the Special Officer till September 30.